The
Temple of Janus (Janus Geminus)

Though iani, archways, abound, why is your
cult based
In the one where your shrine joins two forums?"

Ovid, Fasti (I.257-258)

The Janus Geminus (to reflect his twin faces) was a small
shrine that held an archaic bronze statue of the god, said to
have been dedicated by Numa, Rome's second king (Plutarch, Life,
XX.1-2). Pliny (XXIV.33) relates that its fingers were arranged
to indicate the 355 days of the year; Ovid (Fasti, I.99),
that one hand held a key (as the god of entrances), the other,
a staff (to signify his authority and as a guide).

The doors of the Janus Geminus were opened to indicate that
Rome was at war and closed during times of peace. Since the time
of Numa, the doors were said to have been closed only in 235
BC, after the first Punic war; in 30 BC, after the battle of
Actium; and several times during the reign of Augustus (for examples,
when the Cantabrians were defeated in 25 BC, supposedly ending
the Spanish wars; Livy, I.19; Suetonius, XXII; Plutarch, Numa,
XX). Even in antiquity, the significance of the doors varied:
whether peace was shut inside when the doors were closed or whether
war was contained. In the Fasti, Ovid has peace released
and war held captive behind barred doors (I.121-124) but then
he locks peace inside (I.277-281). Or it may be that the god
was thought to have gone out to assist Rome in her wars and stayed
within the shrine to safeguard the city. Statius, too, has Janus
withdraw behind his closed portal and then speaks of peace being
put back there (Silvae, IV.1, 3). Dio recounts that, of
all the honors extended to Octavian after the defeat of Antony
and Cleopatra, "the action which pleased him more than all
the decrees was the closing by the senate of the gates of Janus,
implying that all their wars had entirely ceased" (Dio,
LI.20.4).

No archaeological remains for the location of Janus Geminus
have been found, but numismatic evidence depicts a rectangular
building with two arched doors opposite one another, flanked
by two columns. The long sides are courses of ashlar blocks with
a grating above, surmounted by a decorated frieze of serpentine
vines and another with palmettes. The temple is said to have
been situated between the Forum Julium and the Forum Romanum,
close to where the Argiletum entered the forum. There is no literary
evidence that the shrine ever was rebuilt, but it must have been
moved to make way for the construction of the Basilica Aemilia
in 179 BC and again by Domitian to the Forum Transitorium when
he rebuilt the Curia Julia in AD 94. There, possibly remodeled
as a quadrifrontal arch, a four-faced statue of Janus replaced
the original bifrontal one.

Sometime before the assassination of Pertinax in AD 193 (Dio,
LXXIV.13.3), a new shrine to Janus was constructed in front of
the Curia, built of bronze (or perhaps only the interior was
sheathed in bronze) and just big enough to house a large statue
of the god (Procopius, Gothic Wars, V.25.18ff.). By then,
relates Procopius, the custom of opening the doors when at war
was abandoned, in deference to Christian teaching.

Janus was the Roman god of passages, both topographical and
temporal. The word, itself, is linked with janus "archway"
and janua "passage, gate" and can refer to the
god and to the passageways connected with him. He also was the
doorkeeper (janitor), a god of openings and beginnings
(for example, Januarius). Macrobius elaborates on the
role in the Saturalia (I.9). That Janus is the first name
called upon when the gods are worshiped is because the prayers
of supplicants are conveyed through his doors. For this reason,
he also was considered the doorkeeper of heaven and hell. His
four faces look toward the four corners of the world, as though
his greatness embraces all regions. After the Julian reform of
the calendar, the fingers of Janus were said to represent 365
days.

The sestertius above was issued by Nero to commemorate
the end of an inconclusive Parthian campaign. This Neronian Janus
has walls of ashlar masonry under a grated window set beneath
a decorated attic. Double doors are shown framed by columns,
with a wreath hanging overhead. Presumably, there were similar
doors at the other end, the geminae belli portae through
which, as Virgil relates, the procession passed (Aeneid,
VII.607ff). No roof is indicated and there may not have been
one. The large grated windows suggest, however, a flat roof.

The obverse reads PACE P R TERRA MARIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT,
"The Peace of the Roman People having been established on
Land and Sea, he closed Janus." Several years later, the
doors would be opened again when the Jewish war began in AD 66.